Michael Schatzow, a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, focuses his practice on complex commercial and bankruptcy litigation, white-collar criminal cases and internal investigations.  He is a versatile trial lawyer and has been trying cases to juries for 38 years, including seven as a federal prosecutor.

Practical and efficient, whether leading teams large or small, Mr.Schatzow takes complex issues and makes them understandable.  His acknowledged trial experience has proven beneficial in settling cases prior to trial.  His trial approach is focused and streamlined and his experience and reputation render him instantly credible with adversaries throughout the country.  Mr. Schatzow’s distinguished background in public service, first as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana where, as Chief of Trials, he was responsible for the conduct of all civil and criminal trials, then as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Maryland (where he was Chief of Fraud Cases), and his concurrent role as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Hawaii, render him extremely knowledgeable with respect to the intricate and complex workings of legal systems nationwide.

Representative Clients

Mr. Schatzow has represented one of the nation’s largest defense contractors and many of its employees, in both criminal and civil cases, addressing false claims act cases and qui tam suits. He has also represented a joint venture of international construction/engineering companies in arbitration of construction/design disputes.  He represents smaller defense contractors in government fraud cases and numerous individual clients in criminal cases. He has successfully defended one of the nation’s leading mortgage lenders in several class action suits.

Significant Matters

Mr. Schatzow is currently representing a major poultry integrator in an environmental case of first impression concerning responsibility for poultry by-products.  He formerly lead a Venable litigation team serving as special litigation counsel to Enron Corp. in lawsuits and negotiations against large financial institutions involving over-the-counter derivatives and other complex financial transactions. (For example, Enron Corp. v. JP Morgan Securities (In re Enron Corp.), 325 B.R. 671, Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2005, and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. v. Enron Corp. (In re Enron Corp.), No. 04 Civ. 1367 (NRB), et al., 2005 WL 356985 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 15, 2005)).  He also represented a liquidating trust in a case involving the bankruptcy code's safe harbor for swaps. Mr. Schatzow recently tried two successful AAA arbitrations, one involving improper termination of a CEO of a duty-free organization and the other involving the selling shareholders of a pharmaceutical company, which resulted in complete recovery for his clients.

Mr. Schatzow has handled a variety of other matters, including allegations of medicare and medicaid fraud and abuse, suits for breach of contract, civil false claims act cases, government contract charging disputes, litigation concerning design defects and construction of a major recycling plant (In Re Hagerstown Fiber Limited Partnership, 277 B.R. 181 (Bankr. S.D. N.Y. 2002)), the investigation of false statements made to the government, and a civil class action alleging RESPA violations against a mortgage lender (Boulware v. Crossland Mortgage Corporation, 291 F. 3d 261, 4th Cir. 2002).

Activities

Mr. Schatzow is a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, where he accepts appointments to represent indigents in criminal cases, including death penalty cases.  He successfully defended a death penalty inmate in a case that set new legal precedent in the Fourth Circuit concerning the timeliness of the government’s filing of the required death penalty notice. (U.S. v. Ferebe, 332 F. 3d 722, 4th Cir. 2003).